I’m about to start taking some antipsychotic meds tomorrow (Olanzapine). I’ve been off my bipolar meds for a long time. Anyway, every time I take antipsychotics, I gain a ridiculous amount of muscle really fast. This one time, I gained an average of a pound/day for about a month (I gained 30lb), and I didn’t see any visible increase in fat. My bench press went from 175lb to 235lb, squat from 185lb to 295lb, and deadlift from 275lb to 365lb (all in that one month). I wasn’t even eating that much, and I wasn’t eating healthy at all. It was pretty cool.
Has anyone else had this experience with any medications?
Olanzapine, under the trademark name Zyprexa was involved in a lawsuit for not adequately informing doctors and patients about research involving severe weight gain leading to metabolic syndrome and diabetes (one of the links at random: http://www.seegerweiss.com/drug-injury/zyprexa/) . Most antipsychotics in that class have metabolic issues, and you will have to have glucose and liver enzymes tested regularly, but Zyprexa is notorious for it and is one of the worst according to some doctors I have spoken to.
IIRC from my previous research, it has to do with carbohydrate metabolism. So maybe your metabolism is really fast, and it slows it down enough for you to utilize it, or something. There’s a lot about carb metabolism and fast metabolisms I do not know
@csulli, i’m pretty sure i became dependent on this stuff to not be scared out of my mind of shadows, dark areas, and random noises… so it’s a good thing it gives me good muscle gains. pros and cons to being mentally ill.
@SkyzykS, dang yo. that sounds pretty bad. a lot of the antipsychotics that i’ve taken in the past have knocked me out for like 14-17 hours at a time, but i never was unable to move when i was awake.
@talc, i never did any research on zyprexa. thanks for the info. that’s some interesting stuff.
I been taking Antipsychotics for 3 years and i have some mad gains, I’m stronger then ever and trains less then ever, just 1h a week. But i get pregnant belly like pro bodybuilder.
I gain like 15kg or 33lb of muscle in a 3 years and i wasn’t in a gym all time, like in 3 years i had 1.5 years working out. But my waist go from 68cm to 92cm
i going to gym periodically last 10 years but in 7 years I gain maybe half of muscles i get in 3 years on Antipsychotics
OK i’m 24 maybe i get older so it is little because of that.
[quote]vukkostic wrote:
I been taking Antipsychotics for 3 years and i have some mad gains, I’m stronger then ever and trains less then ever, just 1h a week. But i get pregnant belly like pro bodybuilder.
I gain like 15kg or 33lb of muscle in a 3 years and i wasn’t in a gym all time, like in 3 years i had 1.5 years working out. But my waist go from 68cm to 92cm
i going to gym periodically last 10 years but in 7 years I gain maybe half of muscles i get in 3 years on Antipsychotics
OK i’m 24 maybe i get older so it is little because of that.[/quote]
I’ve been on various anti-psychotics for a long time now (mostly atypical ones like Abilify and Latuda). I experienced a lot of weight gain, and metabolic syndrome. l do know I gained strength in the beginning along with the weight gain, but over time the weight gain continued and the strength leveled out. Getting rid of the weight has been a nightmare. I was always a skinny kid, and had no idea how difficult it would be to get rid of the weight. I let the weight gain go on WAY too long.
You are only gaining muscle because your body is storing fat like crazy and therefore has a larger reserve of energy. you might also be sleeping more contributing to recovery, I am not a doctor so this is just a guess. Honestly though, I think smoking a pack of cigarettes a day is healthier than those drugs based on what I have seen them do to myself and others.
those drugs are weary individual.
there is something abut appetite
On Rispolept i was eating like crazy 5500 calories a day. I gain fat but i gain much muscles. Now i am one month on zolprix, just switch. Now i have low appetite, losing fat fast…at this moment muscles are same, but i afraid that with this appetite i would start losing muscles
I’ve been on zyprexa (olanzapine) for 2 years and I did get fat/water. Not much. Around 20 pounds. I’m now off zyprexa for 3 weeks and I’m battling with withdraw. You mentioned you used latuda. I was thinking to switch from zyprexa to latuda. What do you think? How latuda worked for you?
I did really well on the lowest dose possible of Latuda for a couple years until I was downsized and got really stressed. I had to up the dosage a bit then, but still relatively low. I’m in the best shape of my life right now. Definitely don’t have the blood sugar affects that Abilify gave me.
Congratulations! That’s really good to know my friend. Which dose of latuda are you taking? Did you gain weight on latuda? Did you feel any metabolism change? I quited zyprexa and I’m really curious about latuda.
I just bumped up to 60 of Latuda about a month ago. Seems fine. Plus I got a job, so the stress level is way down. I’ll probably ask to drop back down to 40 next visit which is what I’ve always been on before. I think the max dose is 120. My metabolism and A1C are way better than it was on Abilify. On Abilify I was pretty much pre-diabetic.